Recruiting

Wasn't the pool you train at once a privately owned pool by the Mission Viejo Community? When they couldn't pay the bills it was bought by the city and rented to the teams that train there. So, by the definition of a business should charge what it needs to in order to stay in business, your club failed. Not really. The privately owned company that was operating the pool, who was also a land developer and a major land owner went out of business in the early 90's, when a lot of land development stopped. Compared to the rest of their business, the pool was a small potato, and not really central to the suces of their business. I'm in land development here, companies the size of Mission Viejo Company oftebn build a facility like our pool with a leftover piece of land as a tax write-off rathet then as an investment. It was turned over to the city when the mission Viejo company closed doors, but not as city operated and city subsidized facility, the facility is self supporting AFAIK, as a non-profit organization, and run by the board of director which is comprised of swimmers. It is not a city operated facility. I haven't looked at the recent fiscal paerwork from the facility. I remember the talks from last year that our yearly budget is about 2 milion a year. If you figure about 800 kids at $125 to $180/month and very active fundraising and sponsor seeking, 2 or so milion a year sounds about right. Plus each family on the kids team has 'mandatory' volunteering and fundraising hours, or they get charged another 500 bucks. I have no idea why kids pay 120-150 a month to come to one workout a day, while Masters only pay $55 a month to have access to 25 workouts a week, as few or as many as they want, and no mandatory volunteering. Only $45 if they don't want a choice of workouts, and only $25 a moth if they're one of the 'swim-parents'. Well, hell, why not just give it for free to masters and then wonder why pools are closing or not welcoming Masters groups. In our example, out of 2 mil a year revenues at the pool, Masters group contributes barely 100K a year because Masters "Aren't used to paying more"... Then everyone wonders why they don't get a priority when it comes to lanes and pool time, and why the group is seen as a necessary evil. They want all this stuff, and want it without paying the going price for it. Last I saw, the bills to maintain the facility were around 20,000 K a month (electricity, water, pool supplies etc...) Events like Nationals, and many of the kids meets are fundraiser events that also keep those facilities afloat. Whether the taxes or more directly from your pocket, the money to operate those facilities will have to come out of our pockets one way or another. Believe me, I trust privatre businesses a lot more to keep things at reasonable operating costs then I trust government to keep something at reasonable operating cost. When oyu have to pat $8.00 for a nail, just how much more expensive do you think the pool costs are? I'd rather spend the extra money on good coaching staff, then on some government administrator to sit and make arbitrary decision where the remainder of the tax dollar goes, after he;s done spending most of it. Imagine how much more difficult it is to build and keep open facilities in areas where you can't swim outside all year. Swimming becomes a much more expensive sport to afford in colder areas. Just my point! It's not going to be any more affordable for the pool operators to keep facilities open if people are more and more used to not paying for what they get. Let me ask you this, how come 24 hour fitness and some other gyms can afford to have many pool facilities WITHOUT teams in them... Perhaps they have membership base and appropriate fees to support the facilities??? Bottom line is It CAN be done !!! As for colsder areas, well Ice hockey is much more expensive in Arizona then it is in Alaska, but facilities find a way to operate, and Ice hockey won;t become the most popular sport In Arizona... Sometimes we have to adjust to the realities of life rather than call on the all mighty goverment to level the field for us. That being said, I do agree with Connie that we need to grow our sport. By growth, we will have greater demand for facilities. The more tax payers that want swimming will have a greater chance of opening new facilities and keeping older ones open. Impressive topic slide for a thread that started with a discussion of relay swimmers. Leave it up to me to stir the pot :P

Wasn't the pool you train at once a privately owned pool by the Mission Viejo Community? When they couldn't pay the bills it was bought by the city and rented to the teams that train there. So, by the definition of a business should charge what it needs to in order to stay in business, your club failed. Not really. The privately owned company that was operating the pool, who was also a land developer and a major land owner went out of business in the early 90's, when a lot of land development stopped. Compared to the rest of their business, the pool was a small potato, and not really central to the suces of their business. I'm in land development here, companies the size of Mission Viejo Company oftebn build a facility like our pool with a leftover piece of land as a tax write-off rathet then as an investment. It was turned over to the city when the mission Viejo company closed doors, but not as city operated and city subsidized facility, the facility is self supporting AFAIK, as a non-profit organization, and run by the board of director which is comprised of swimmers. It is not a city operated facility. I haven't looked at the recent fiscal paerwork from the facility. I remember the talks from last year that our yearly budget is about 2 milion a year. If you figure about 800 kids at $125 to $180/month and very active fundraising and sponsor seeking, 2 or so milion a year sounds about right. Plus each family on the kids team has 'mandatory' volunteering and fundraising hours, or they get charged another 500 bucks. I have no idea why kids pay 120-150 a month to come to one workout a day, while Masters only pay $55 a month to have access to 25 workouts a week, as few or as many as they want, and no mandatory volunteering. Only $45 if they don't want a choice of workouts, and only $25 a moth if they're one of the 'swim-parents'. Well, hell, why not just give it for free to masters and then wonder why pools are closing or not welcoming Masters groups. In our example, out of 2 mil a year revenues at the pool, Masters group contributes barely 100K a year because Masters "Aren't used to paying more"... Then everyone wonders why they don't get a priority when it comes to lanes and pool time, and why the group is seen as a necessary evil. They want all this stuff, and want it without paying the going price for it. Last I saw, the bills to maintain the facility were around 20,000 K a month (electricity, water, pool supplies etc...) Events like Nationals, and many of the kids meets are fundraiser events that also keep those facilities afloat. Whether the taxes or more directly from your pocket, the money to operate those facilities will have to come out of our pockets one way or another. Believe me, I trust privatre businesses a lot more to keep things at reasonable operating costs then I trust government to keep something at reasonable operating cost. When oyu have to pat $8.00 for a nail, just how much more expensive do you think the pool costs are? I'd rather spend the extra money on good coaching staff, then on some government administrator to sit and make arbitrary decision where the remainder of the tax dollar goes, after he;s done spending most of it. Imagine how much more difficult it is to build and keep open facilities in areas where you can't swim outside all year. Swimming becomes a much more expensive sport to afford in colder areas. Just my point! It's not going to be any more affordable for the pool operators to keep facilities open if people are more and more used to not paying for what they get. Let me ask you this, how come 24 hour fitness and some other gyms can afford to have many pool facilities WITHOUT teams in them... Perhaps they have membership base and appropriate fees to support the facilities??? Bottom line is It CAN be done !!! As for colsder areas, well Ice hockey is much more expensive in Arizona then it is in Alaska, but facilities find a way to operate, and Ice hockey won;t become the most popular sport In Arizona... Sometimes we have to adjust to the realities of life rather than call on the all mighty goverment to level the field for us. That being said, I do agree with Connie that we need to grow our sport. By growth, we will have greater demand for facilities. The more tax payers that want swimming will have a greater chance of opening new facilities and keeping older ones open. Impressive topic slide for a thread that started with a discussion of relay swimmers. Leave it up to me to stir the pot :P